On Saturday 20 May, the stage is set for a terrific cup final when Lillestrøm and Brann meet at the Ullevaal stadium. But the national arena does not currently invite parties. news was able to participate when the last winter cloth was removed from the Ullevaal mat on Tuesday, and it is easy to see that a long and cold winter has left its mark on what will be the final scene itself. In particular, the one long side closest to the king’s stand has been hit hard. Pictures of the grass at Ullevål Stadium a little over a week before the cup final. – What happened? news’s football expert and Viking player Kristoffer Løkberg is worried when he sees the pictures. He had hoped the grass looked better so shortly before the match. – I’m starting to wonder what has happened? It has been a while since matches have been played there, so you would think it would be possible to get it in even better condition before such an important match as the cup final. You want perfect settings around a cup final, says Løkberg. Although the grass at Ullevaal has been greener before, the Viking player does not hope that the match itself will be affected by it. – A grass field can look very good, but still be bumpy and uneven. But it can also look bad from a distance, but be quite smooth and playable. Let’s hope it is closer to the last, says Løkberg. This is the status on May 9. Photo: Håkon Mannsåker / news NFF: – It’s been a tough winter Jonathan Clements, track assistant in the Norwegian Football Association, is taking it easy, however. He says he was pleasantly surprised when they removed the cloth and reassures those who are worried about the playing conditions before the big game in 11 days. – It has started to sprout, there are lots of seeds in the ground and there are nice summer temperatures now. I am very positive that it will be fine on 20 May when Brann and Lillestrøm arrive, says Clements to news. We pass on Løkberg’s question: – Why has it become like this? – It has been a tough winter with a lot of ice on the track, we probably had 30 centimeters of ice for several months. When it melted, basically the whole track looked like that. Now you see that one side is brown, and that’s because we don’t get sun there, it’s the shadow side. But now we use artificial light to bring up the grass seeds we have in the ground, says Clements. Jonathan Clements, field assistant in the Norwegian Football Association, before the curtain on the national arena was lifted away on Tuesday. Photo: Håkon Mannsåker / news – The goal is to get it green Clements emphasizes that they will work intensively every day in the future to get the turf as nice as possible for Norwegian football’s big celebration day next Saturday. – The goal is to get it green for the cup final. I have 100 percent faith in that. There may be some brown spots here and there, but in 11 days it will look good, he says. – To what extent do you think the players will notice anything about this? – Little. In terms of gameplay, there will be no difference, but maybe in terms of visuals. For example, you can see down in one corner, where we have the advantage of making it sprout. But I think it will come. – We can hope that the field man keeps his words, and that the players can make the same choices with the ball that they would have made on a normal field. I hope we avoid the players having to take bad conditions into account, says Løkberg. This corner on one short side causes headaches for the NFF. Photo: Håkon Mannsåker / news – Ullevaal was believed to be in better condition Both the Brann and Lillestrøm players had Tuesday off and were not available for an interview, but LSK’s sports manager Simon Mesfin takes the time to look at the recent pictures from Ullevaal. – Immediately, when you see the pictures, it doesn’t look good, he says to news. Mesfin nevertheless chooses to breathe with his stomach and have faith that the cup final will get the turf it deserves. – I have been involved for so long that I have good faith in people who work with grass. And they are the ones who are professionally competent. When they say it looks promising, we have to trust them. But I thought Ullevaal was in better condition before I saw those pictures and is not as it should look at this time, says the LSK manager. PS: Lillestrøm has previously experienced playing cup finals on a very demanding course. In 2005, when LSK lost against Molde, the match was played on a muddy and cruel pitch. Then the women’s final the day before was blamed, and that led to the women’s final not being played at the national arena for many years. The cup final between Brann and LSK on 20 May kicks off at 16.00. The match is broadcast on news 1.
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